Reviews, gig announcements and interviews in Northern Ireland

All Saints – Feile An Phobail, Belfast

Sunday night is an unusual night to attend a gig and in a circus big top, placed in a park on the Falls Road, Belfast of all places. But this is the Feile – a community festival organised in West Belfast; one of the largest of its kind and its been running since 1988! Also how could I say no to one of the coolest girl bands from the 90’s.

When I read the lineup this year I got excited to see All Saints on the list, so myself, my sister and a lot of my girl friends went about getting our hands on tickets and booking the night off . We were not disappointed. All Saints are still the cool, bad ass and best girl group to come out of the 90’s. Their album All-Saints attained five platinum discs in 1997, they where second only to the Spice Girls and in my teenage years they where the grungy cool alternative. Brownie points in my eyes where attained as they sang the theme tune to a Leonardo DiCaprio film (The Beach) and covered one of my favourite Red Hot Chilli Peppers songs “Under the Bridge”.

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They broke up in 2000, and reformed a few times later in 2013 for various gigs and I even spotted two members in the Celebrity Big Brother house at one point 2008, I think? However in 2016 they are back with their new album Red Flag which debuted at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart and they seem motivated, happy and reunited.

On Sunday night they burst back on to the Belfast stage with as much energy as there younger self’s and they brought back all there 90’s synchronized dance moves. Starting the night with “Chick Fit” and straight into “I Know Where It’s At”; the crowd loved it and everyone danced and whooped along and they definitely knew how to have to have a good time.

The gig was a mixture of 90’s hits and newer material. 90’s hits namely “Never Ever”, “Under the Bridge”, “Bootie Call”, “Black Coffee” and my own personal favourite “Pure Shores” which closed the show, had the crowd bouncing and singing. At one point the nostalgia completely kicked in for the (older) crowd and the gig turned into one big singalong of “Under the Bridge” which broke a smile across each of the band members faces.

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All Saints newer material also got a good reception from the crowd – I had listened to the Red Flag album and had enjoyed it but the live delivery was something else, it had a deeper tone and a heavier beat and I loved it.

Overall the girls brought the modern Beyoncé vibes to a great 90’s band. They had attitude, dance moves and great vocals, they even had a nod to Queen B herself with an interlude of Formation at one point. I wish them every success with the rest of the Tour and hope to see them coming back to Belfast some point in the near future.